The route tool is designed to place waypoints on a map connected by legs. These legs have a direct correlation to distances and bearings used when hiking, orienteering, and surveying. You may create and edit routes based on these measurements by following this procedure:

1. Set your bearings to True or Magnetic North.Your bearing measurements must have been taken relative to either True or Magnetic North. From the File Menu, choose Preferences, Coordinate. In the Bearing Display section, choose either True or Magnetic North. Also, set the Format and Units for the Bearing Display to match the type of bearings you are looking to input. (Many surveys use Quadrant notation in Dº M' S", for example.)

2. Place your first point.Since bearings and distances must be in relation to a starting point, the first step is to create a starting point, or Point of Beginning. There are two ways to create a starting point: by placing it on the map using the Route tool, or by entering its coordinates by opening the Layers menu, choosing Routes, and pressing New (route) and New (waypoint.)

3. Enter the bearing and distance.Once you have created a Point of Beginning, right-click the route (waypoint) and choose Edit Route Waypoints. You will be presented with the Route Waypoints/Legs editor that shows all of the waypoints in the Route. Currently, you should have a single waypoint in this list. Above the list, you will notice a selection for Waypoints or Legs. Choose Legs. This illustrates each leg between two waypoints. Since you only have a single waypoint, there are no legs to edit.

Highlighted in the leg list will be "Wpt1 to ---------" (assuming the default name of your first waypoint). Pressing New while this entry is highlighted will add a new waypoint to the end of the route, based on a distance and bearing.

Click New in the Legs portion of the Route Waypoint/Leg editor and enter a Bearing and Distance for your new waypoint. Note that either Azimuth or Quadrant bearings can be used. When satisfied with your selections, press OK to save your new leg. Now, the list of legs will include two items, the leg you've just created, and a second, used to add additional legs. Press Close to exit the editor (if your route is complete) or continue to add additional legs by selecting the last leg in the list ("Wpt# to --------") and pressing New.

If you need to close the route (connect the last waypoint to the first), check the 'Loop End to End' option in the Route editor, once the last waypoint has been placed.